Had not done one of these in a while. 20 Minute Podcast looking at my 10 biggest talking points from my perspective of our 2018 season - my 5 biggest positives and 5 biggest negatives. Talk about individual players, team culture, type of signings made, attack/defence, and the rebuild going forward among other things.

Let me know what you think are the 5 biggest positives and negatives this season so far for the club?

Appreciate the effort you put in for the podcast and your opinions on the year so far.

I disagree with at least 50% of what you said as it is very easy in hindsight to come out with reasons why this guy is no good and why did we sign this crok, we should have been looking at xyz etc. etc.

Who at the start of the season expected us to have gone so well. After the second half of last year who would have thought Lolohea would have offered almost nothing this year. Were you saying after the first five rounds that Packer, Matulino etc. were has beens. McQueen did not have that injury when we signed him. I could go on….

As I say in hindsight Ivan might have made a number of different choices - we don’t know what goes on in the Club really but safe to say good players were not knocking our door down to come here, hence grab the best we could until we can upgrade to better.

I think the Club and Cleary are doing well, salary cap has gone into positive, Members have increased, media are not attacking us as much as usual, C of E starting to get underway. We have generally done well off the field and made positive steps on the field but have started to fade over the past few weeks. We need to pick it up a bit for the run home to ensure that there has been significant improvement for the year.

We don’t accept mediocrity but I think we can accept the 2018 rebuild if further good steps are made for 2019. I don’t think Cleary would be letting Kev, Tui, Sue, Grant etc. go if he did not have better players in the wings.

I’ll leave the positive and negatives to Ivan to sort out, he is much better qualified than I.

Appreciate the effort you put in for the podcast and your opinions on the year so far.

I disagree with at least 50% of what you said as it is very easy in hindsight to come out with reasons why this guy is no good and why did we sign this crok, we should have been looking at xyz etc. etc.

Who at the start of the season expected us to have gone so well. After the second half of last year who would have thought Lolohea would have offered almost nothing this year. Were you saying after the first five rounds that Packer, Matulino etc. were has beens. McQueen did not have that injury when we signed him. I could go on….

As I say in hindsight Ivan might have made a number of different choices - we don’t know what goes on in the Club really but safe to say good players were not knocking our door down to come here, hence grab the best we could until we can upgrade to better.

I think the Club and Cleary are doing well, salary cap has gone into positive, Members have increased, media are not attacking us as much as usual, C of E starting to get underway. We have generally done well off the field and made positive steps on the field but have started to fade over the past few weeks. We need to pick it up a bit for the run home to ensure that there has been significant improvement for the year.

We don’t accept mediocrity but I think we can accept the 2018 rebuild if further good steps are made for 2019. I don’t think Cleary would be letting Kev, Tui, Sue, Grant etc. go if he did not have better players in the wings.

I’ll leave the positive and negatives to Ivan to sort out, he is much better qualified than I.

It is all opinion Russell.

I think there has been positive change this year like you mentioned.

The only signing I really liked was Packer, however like you said no one was banging down our door. I just worry about the long term deals for older players. Lolihea I said before a ball was kicked that I did not think he was up to standard and way off the pace.

Appreciate the effort you put in for the podcast and your opinions on the year so far.

I disagree with at least 50% of what you said as it is very easy in hindsight to come out with reasons why this guy is no good and why did we sign this crok, we should have been looking at xyz etc. etc.

Who at the start of the season expected us to have gone so well. After the second half of last year who would have thought Lolohea would have offered almost nothing this year. Were you saying after the first five rounds that Packer, Matulino etc. were has beens. McQueen did not have that injury when we signed him. I could go on….

As I say in hindsight Ivan might have made a number of different choices - we don’t know what goes on in the Club really but safe to say good players were not knocking our door down to come here, hence grab the best we could until we can upgrade to better.

I think the Club and Cleary are doing well, salary cap has gone into positive, Members have increased, media are not attacking us as much as usual, C of E starting to get underway. We have generally done well off the field and made positive steps on the field but have started to fade over the past few weeks. We need to pick it up a bit for the run home to ensure that there has been significant improvement for the year.

We don’t accept mediocrity but I think we can accept the 2018 rebuild if further good steps are made for 2019. I don’t think Cleary would be letting Kev, Tui, Sue, Grant etc. go if he did not have better players in the wings.

I’ll leave the positive and negatives to Ivan to sort out, he is much better qualified than I.

It is all opinion Russell.

I think there has been positive change this year like you mentioned.

The only signing I really liked was Packer, however like you said no one was banging down our door. I just worry about the long term deals for older players. Lolihea I said before a ball was kicked that I did not think he was up to standard and way off the pace.

Absolutely it is all opinion and as I said I appreciate yours.

I think (and my opinion again) that we made some good signings and it would appear some not so good. I still think that we have not seen the best from some because of injury e.g. Packer was going alright until he copped that knee injury, Matulino’s knees have been a problem for him for years, it may affect him from time to time but overall he is good to go and will play reasonably well. I think his big problem is Packer - when Packer plays well he plays exceptionally well. Reynolds has just been unlucky in my opinion - has had a hamstring problem - a shoulder problem and he came down on his elbow scoring that try at LO which impacted his shoulder again. Wouldn’t say it was the same problem all the time. Liddle is the same - they left it too late for the operations and he missed the pre-season - really couldn’t afford to to that and then picked up the sternum injury. McQueen I think will come good, he has been playing average in ISP but I think he would play a lot better in the NRL given the chance. Needs better players around him (but not the ones that turned up at LO).

I think we will regret letting Kev go and I’m sure I will cop some stick for saying this but Tui as well. He is a good player who played reasonably well last year and in the World Cup but for whatever reason not this year. He would have been a good 5/8 for us but Cleary knows what his own plans are. Of course all this doesn’t help us in the remaining games.

I look forward positively to 2019 and some new players being signed to take us further up the ladder next year.

Had not done one of these in a while. 20 Minute Podcast looking at my 10 biggest talking points from my perspective of our 2018 season - my 5 biggest positives and 5 biggest negatives. Talk about individual players, team culture, type of signings made, attack/defence, and the rebuild going forward among other things.

Let me know what you think are the 5 biggest positives and negatives this season so far for the club?

Thanks Eddie I listened to the entire podcast and I agree with most of what you have said, especially regarding some of the players we signed given their age and injury problems and more importantly the long deals they have been given

I think we can only win two more matches this season, but who knows we may come good and finish the season with a “flourish”. lets hope so.

Great work Eddie - all well considered and thoughtful points. I can’t disagree with anything you’ve said, the only comment I’d make is that I have listened very closely to Ivan’s conversations around the rebuild process - he has touched on his thoughts on many occasions - and I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt regarding who he has signed and why. I believe he does have a plan, and as difficult as it is, I think as fans we need to be a little patient. We have laid some solid foundations towards change and even now we are going about the reshaping our roster with some of the latest player movements.

Sure a lot will depend on who we can pick up for next season, but I am sure he is trying to fill the 6-7 spots we will have with upgrades and a few quality signings. Of the players you are concerned about, McQueen (wasn’t really Ivan’s choice) is looking like a poor option who we will really need to do something about, Reynolds may well move on early if things don’t work out, Packer and Mats, if they do last their terms, will end up being bench props playing less minutes behind younger more mobile guys. At that time their leadership qualities may prove to be of benefit in the forwards. Tui is now gone.

The only other thing I have seen as a positive worth mentioning is the general turn around the club has made in all facets of its existence. It wasn’t that long ago that WT’s couldn’t do anything right and were in the press being hammered over every possible thing. I think that Pascoe and Cleary deserve recognition in turning that debacle around effectively.

When I looked at the team and draw at the beginning of the year my hope was in the coach. Things started well but I am not a fan of dropping players from a winning team. The cracks first started to appear watching Benji starting to run sideways, not willing to put his body on the line. Then our forwards started to run with less commitment and yes we had injuries in key positions for our roster, but something was not right. Why Packer or Matalino had never consistently performed at their previous clubs stared us in the face. Eisenhuth has also had a dramatic form loss but in fairness may be due to the way he is being asked to play. ET looks punch drunk and Sue is. We no longer have the depth in the forwards. Aloiai has been extremely disappointing also. If not for Lawrence and Twal things would look even more bleak. I cant comment on why other players were not given opportunities, but I do not see what the coaches see day to day.

We are the type of team that needs to have minimum mistakes in our execution to succeed. We are now falling down here too. For me this is the most disappointing aspect of our decline, giving away field position with unforced errors.

We are capable of stringing together wins if we commit again. Lets hope.